The Future Of Medicine Could Be Embedded In Robotic Surgeons

It is a very known fact that the technology of robotics has found expression in almost every aspect of our lives, and in the field of medicine too. We have heard of the RoboCop, RoboDog, etc; but have you heard of RoboDoctor?

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Medical technology is getting more advanced and weirder by the day. Take for example: the smart iKnife (the surgical blade that vaporizes tissues, and analyses the smoke that extrudes from it, so that the surgeons can detect if it is cutting into normal cells or cancerous cell). 

But there is so much improvement you can do to a tool before you eventually turn your attention to the hand that holds that tool. And that is where Robotic Surgery (autonomous surgery) comes in. 

But the question is:

How far are we from achieving complex autonomous surgery?

From the trend of technological evolution, I would say; not as far as you may think. The advances in robotic surgery are really advancing to incorporate cutting edge Artificial Intelligence for effectiveness, viability, versatility, accuracy, speed, and most importantly, reliability.

The potentials in this could change the course of medical science forever. 

One of the promising and common surgical robots is the Da Vinci Surgical system. 

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But Da Vinci focuses on translating the surgeon’s control movement into direct action on the patient. This is just like controlling the surgical system remotely with a joystick (anytime the hand moves, the robot will move in sympathy to the movement).

Advantage of Robotic surgery/surgeon

One of the major advantages of robotic surgeons is the opportunity and chance for telesurgery. Here’s how telesurgery works: 

Let’s assume you’re on an assignment off the coast of Antarctica, and suddenly you require an appendectomy. But you’re very well cut off from any nearby aid, and maybe your crew surgeon is not available (Maybe he was kidnapped by sea pirates). In that condition, what do you do? Well, this is where telesurgery comes into play. A surgeon on the mainland will sit behind the terminals and will supervise a telesurgery remotely through satellite uplink.

Another advantage of robotic surgery is the minimal invasive procedure. The traditional method of surgery normally see larger surface area incisions which leave big scars, but robotic surgeons could achieve the same effect with just a puncture to the area, then carefully guiding the endoscopic tool remotely through the body.

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There are limitations to what the hands of human doctors can achieve through these tiny holes. That is why robots are indispensible in this regard. In the future we can even see surgeries without a single incision. Accept this fact; this future has already been initiated. 

You would be very amazed at what technology has presented to us. Very soon we could see an open-sourced robotic surgeon that would be incorporated into an automated “med bay” just like the movie “Elysium” that will virtually have solution to almost every aspect of human health challenge.

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Now this may sound impossible, but that’s the nature of technology. As long as our minds can conceive it, the actualization will fall into place.

Potentials of robotic surgeons

Here we’re talking about the “Full Autonomous Robot Surgeons” this is way beyond the robot assisted surgeons. These surgeons will function in full capacity as physicians (thanks to AI and machine learning). The robots will study and analyze the successful procedures in the past, and apply the information to learn how to replicate the same effect (remember, this is void of any human assistance). 

Looking at another angle to this; If these robotic surgeons are proven to be better than human physicians, maybe humans won’t need to go to hospital again for surgeries, you may buy a robot surgeon for your home. That means, human physicians will be almost completely sidelined. 

But I would like to present this very crucial question to you:

If you were to have a very dangerous surgery that anticipates complications, which will you choose: the best human surgeon in our present world or the best robot surgeon from 100years in the future?

Don’t be quick to answer; just think about it and let me know your responses.

Tech can only get better.

Thanks for reading

References for further reading: Ref1, Ref2, Ref3, Ref4